Star Wars with occasional sarcasm

So, as you probably already know, Leonard Nimoy died today. There’s not really much I have to add to what’s already been said, thousands of times over.

The first movie I can remember going to in the theater is The Search for Spock. Star Wars may have been the bigger phenomenon in the early ’80s, but Star Trek was on TV, regularly. For a kid born in the late ’70s to geek parents, with no older siblings to pass on the Star Wars bug, Trek was simply more present. I was never precisely fannish about it, but I liked it, I’ve watched most of the movies, and I know I’ve seen nearly every episode of TOS and TNG at some point or another.

I saw a lot of references to Nimoy today as the “soul” of Trek, and, yeah: That sounds about right.

It’s not clear if ‘Journey to Episode VII’ will be an official series title for the young adult books leading into the movie, but Jedi Bibliothek (translated) did reveal the first title: The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure. It’s expected to summarize Luke’s story from the original trilogy, touching on events after Return of the Jedi, perhaps all the way up to the start of Episode VII.

We learned yesterday that Lucasfilm event lead Mary Franklin is heading to ReedPOP. And while we’ll still see her at Celebration – they produce the con and are under contract at least through Anaheim – it’s still a little bittersweet. Mary herself wrote about it today.

In addition to Celebration, ReedPOP puts on NYCC, C2E2, Emerald City Comicon and a wide selection of international events.

You can bid on an autographed copy of The Force Awakens table read photo to help raises funds for Arts in the Armed Forces. Donated by Adam Driver, the picture is signed by him, J.J. Abrams and most of the cast. (Including some not in the picture.) The winner also gets a private tour of Lucasfilm and ILM.

I’ve avoid saying much about my spoiler policy here on Club Jade, mainly because I firmly believe in taking these things on a case-by-case basis. But there is one hard fact here: I will not treat officially released material as spoilers.

That doesn’t mean I’ll spoil something that’s in The Force Awakens novelization or art book, on the chance they come out before the film does. But any officially released publicity material is fair game. That means trailers, commercials, press releases and anything else that Lucasfilm very clearly wants people to know.

For the spoiler-free, there’s J.J. Abrams saying there’s “an abundance of riches” from the film that they’re making “as good as it could be.” So basically, don’t expect much before Celebration, which, yeah.

Lucasfilm has confirmed that Darth Vader himself will be showing up for the Rebels season finale, as previously rumored. Of course, the bigger – and more shocking, if it plays out – part of said rumor is still under lock and key, officially.

You get a brief glimpse of him here:

Vader has already appeared on the show once, in holograph form, an extra scene added when ‘Spark of Rebellion’ aired on ABC.

The Rebels season finale, ‘Fire Across the Galaxy,’ will debut Monday, March 2, on Disney XD.